An Geonjun, CEO of Crucialtec, "Rebound with Financial Soundness and New Products"

Business Struggles Due to Worsening China Relations... Turning Point with New Clients
Capital Erosion and Liquidity Issues Resolved through Free Capital Reduction and Office Sale
High Sales Expectations for New Products like Respiratory Medical Devices and Educational Tablets

CEO An Geon-jun of Crucialtec is explaining the improvement of the financial structure and new business.

CrucialTec, a leading domestic venture company known as a representative success model in the biometric sensor industry, has completed a two-year financial restructuring and laid the groundwork for a new leap forward. Having grown by independently developing the Optical Trackpad (OTP), a mobile optical mouse, and the Biometric Trackpad (BTP), a fingerprint recognition module for smartphones, CrucialTec faced difficulties after the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) incident strained relations with its major Chinese smartphone clients. However, the company made a turning point last year by welcoming Samsung Electronics as a new client. In June this year, CrucialTec received approval for a free capital reduction at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, reducing accumulated deficits, and improved its financial structure by selling its Pangyo R&D center to secure cash liquidity. Since early this year, the company has also been increasing supply of its main products to global companies, showing business results. We spoke with CEO An Geon-jun, who is leading CrucialTec's resurgence, about the journey so far.

◆Improvement of Financial Soundness and Securing Clients = On the 1st, CEO An said in an interview with Asia Economy, "The most effective way to enhance corporate creditworthiness was ultimately improving financial soundness," adding, "We worked closely with management to devise a radical restructuring plan and implemented it through an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in early June this year." CrucialTec completed a 6-for-1 free capital reduction to eliminate the risk of capital erosion and resolved cash liquidity issues by selling its headquarters building in Pangyo for 35.3 billion KRW. CEO An explained, "With improved cash liquidity, the debt ratio dropped to 77%, and reliance on borrowings fell significantly to 19.5%. The current ratio, which was 121% in the first half of this year, improved by 34% to 155%." He also expects further financial improvement once the ongoing rights offering is completed.

In terms of business performance, CrucialTec is laying the foundation for a 'quantum jump.' Despite experiencing a sales decline after the THAAD incident, the company maintained its technological edge through R&D investment and secured new clients by targeting domestic, Japanese, and Southeast Asian markets beyond China. CEO An explained that these efforts are bearing fruit this year. He said, "Since last year, we have started supplying fingerprint recognition modules to Samsung Electronics, and we are gradually regaining market share by supplying two models to Sony's first 5G smartphone in Japan and Vinsmart's models in Vietnam," adding, "I am even more optimistic about next year than this year."

An Geonjun, CEO of Crucialtec

◆Visibility of New Business Sales = New businesses are also being steadily prepared. The 'Medical Inhaler,' a respiratory disease treatment medical device that can deliver drugs directly to the lungs, is pursuing business cooperation with a global pharmaceutical company. Currently, development has been completed to a level where 60% of the drug can directly reach the lungs, and efforts continue to raise this to 90%. The high-performance educational tablet, jointly developed with Taiwan's Foxconn, which manufactures Apple's tablets, and domestic venture company NS Devil, has started initial mass production. This product recently secured supply contracts with universities in Indonesia. Negotiations are also underway with a domestic portal service company for tablet supply, so sales are expected to increase soon.

CEO An said, "Among new businesses, the high-performance educational tablet will generate sales first," adding, "The Medical Inhaler is also in the final development stage, and we are pursuing business cooperation with several pharmaceutical companies producing drugs related to lung diseases, aiming for sales by the first half of next year." He continued, "We are recovering market share in the fingerprint recognition module market, and with new businesses entering their final stages, I am confident that the improvement in financial soundness through restructuring and rights offerings will sufficiently lead to sales growth."

CrucialTec achieved its first success by being the world’s first to launch the Optical Trackpad and monopolizing 97% of the global market, and later pioneered the global market by developing the first mobile fingerprint recognition module. CEO An believes that with excellent financial soundness secured, putting the core fingerprint recognition module business and new businesses on track will bring a third growth opportunity. He emphasized, "Just as CrucialTec dramatically rebounded in the past, this time we will achieve an even greater W-shaped turnaround."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.